Ryan Mack to the GOP, “SHAME ON YOU!”

Written By Ryan Mack, President of Optimum Capital Management, LLC
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I am not one who likes to protect those who want a handout. I don’t think that A SINGLE dime of taxpayer dollars should be given to ANYONE without the proper measures put in place to ensure the accountability of how those dollars will be used by the recipient in a responsible manner. I believe this standard should be applied to EVERYONE who receives government support in this country…no matter their level of income or class level. If you want Government help...you must also deal with the stringent terms and conditions that come along with it.
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This is why it has been such a disappointment to see those who call themselves fiscal conservatives fight so hard to strip away financial support for those who need it most only to put the entire economy in jeopardy to protect the corporate welfare (handouts) for the rich. They choose to go to battle on behalf of the oil companies, hedge fund managers, millionaires, and corporate jet owners while they tell the least of those in this country to “pull yourself up from your own boot straps” while many of them can’t even afford boots.
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Let’s look at the oil companies who the GOP believes can’t afford to live without the billions of dollars of tax credits and loopholes they receive every year. In 2010 ExxonMobil earned $30.5 billion (an increase of $11 billion from 2009), Chevron earned $19 billion (up $8.5 billion from 2009), and ConocoPhillips earned $8.8 billion (up almost $4 billion from 2009). These numbers are billion with a “B”! While the rest of the country were not even traveling for vacation, arranging car pools just to get to work, and many men who I personally know in Detroit weren’t even asking women on dates because they couldn’t afford the price of the gas needed to put in the car…these companies were enjoying record profits! THESE are the entities that need their welfare protected? These are the people who the GOP believes represent the fabric of America and to reverse the loopholes that save billions will hurt the economy because it eats into their record profits?! (Closing these loopholes could generate $40-$50 billion in revenue for the country.)
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Let’s look at the hedge fund managers. John Paulson, hedge fund giant, earned $158 per second in 2010 to a personal profit of $5 billion which beat out the $4 billion that he earned by betting against the subprime market. Yes that is correct…while the rest of America was suffering from the collapse of the entire economy caused largely because of the subprime mortgage industry…John Paulson earned $4 billion from it. All in all the top 25 hedge fund managers earned a collective $25.3 billion in 2009! Now…I don’t begrudge them from making money. I would have loved to be on the receiving end of a $4 or $5 billion trade! Give me the opportunity and I would never turn down that chance. However, the GOP is fighting for THESE guys to keep their tax loophole of only being taxed at 15% as opposed to paying ordinary income taxes just like every other person in this country. Why should they get the opportunity to pay less taxes on their income than you and I have to pay? (Closing this loophole could generate $4 billion in revenue for the country.)
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Let’s look at the tax cuts for millionaires. First of all…there has never been a President in history of this country that has ever given a tax cut during a time of war. George Bush broke this record when he gave the rich people tax cuts that were not asked for by the rich, were not paid for by this country, and are bankrupting this country. Citizens for Tax Justice estimates the total cost of these bankrupting tax cuts that transpired under George Bush from 2001 through 2003 to be $2.5 trillion through 2010 and rising! Over half of all of these benefits went to the RICHEST 5% of taxpayers for a total cost

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